VILNIUS: Poland and the three Baltic states said Thursday they would temporarily restrict access for Russian citizens holding EU visas by September 19 to address \u201cpublic policy and security threats.\u201d
\nThe prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said in a statement they were concerned \u201cabout the substantial and growing influx of Russian citizens\u201d into the EU.
\n\u201cWe believe that this is becoming a serious threat to our public security and to the overall shared Schengen area,\u201d they said.
\nThe statement said the four \u201cagreed on a common regional approach and hereby express their political will and firm intention to introduce national temporary measures for Russian citizens holding visas.\u201d
\nThe measures would \u201crestrict the entry into the Schengen area for Russian citizens traveling for tourism, culture, sport and business purposes.\u201d
\nExceptions will be made for various categories, including \u201cdissidents,\u201d \u201chumanitarian cases,\u201d family members and holders of residence permits in EU countries.
\n\u201cWe fully uphold the need to continue to support opponents of the Putin regime and provide them with opportunities to leave Russia,\u201d the four leaders said.
\nBut they added that it was \u201cunacceptable that citizens of the aggressor-state are able to freely travel in the EU, whilst at the same time people in Ukraine are being tortured and murdered.\u201d
\nThe prime ministers said they would \u201ccontinue to seek a common approach on the EU level.\u201d
\nEU foreign ministers meeting in Prague last month agreed to suspend a 2007 visa facilitation deal with Russia, stopping short of a wider visa ban.
\nBut EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that countries bordering Russia could \u201ctake measures at a national level to restrict entry into the European Union.\u201d
\nHe emphasised, however, that any measures would have to conform with rules for the EU\u2019s Schengen common travel zone and members of Russian civil society should continue to be able to travel to the EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VILNIUS: Poland and the three Baltic states said Thursday they would temporarily restrict access for Russian citizens holding EU visas by September 19 to address \u201cpublic policy and security threats.\u201d The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said in a statement they were concerned \u201cabout the substantial and growing influx of Russian citizens\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[10562,337,10563,305,4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-282227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-baltics","9":"tag-ban","10":"tag-eu-visa","11":"tag-poland","12":"tag-russians"},"yoast_head":"\n